Knights open UMAC season with win

NEW ULM – The Martin Luther College men’s basketball team used a barrage of 3-pointers by senior Ben Edmundson to defeat Bethany Lutheran College 69-56 in the UMAC opener Saturday.

Edmundson came off the bench to lead all scorers with 20 points in 22 minutes, making 6-of-9 attempts from beyond the 3-point line and seven of his 10 attempts overall for the game.

The Knights led by 10 at the half, with Edmundson leading the way with 11 of the team’s 30 points. MLC was sound defensively in the first 20 minutes, holding BLC to just 22.2 percent shooting and forcing eight turnovers.

The second half provided more of the same, as the Vikings never got closer than six points the rest of the way. Edmundson made three more from distance to push the Vikings out of their zone defense.

Galen Holzhueter took over offensively from that point, scoring 12 points in the second half after being held in check by the BLC zone in the first part of the game. Holzhueter finished with 18 points on 5-of-12 shooting, and also went 8-of-12 from the free-throw line.

The MLC offense finished the game shooting 43.1 percent overall and 53.3 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, while the defense forced 18 turnovers and held BLC to 32.7 percent shooting for the game.

Mike Paulsen had his second start in a row at point guard, leading all players with seven assists and five steals to go with seven rebounds. Luke Rothe led MLC with 11 rebounds, while Austin Eisenmann provided seven points off the bench to go with three steals.

The Knights improved to 2-10 on the season and 1-0 in the UMAC, while BLC fell to 1-11 overall and 0-1 in league play in defeat.

MLC will return to action on Friday, when it hosts Northwestern (Minn.) for a 5:30 p.m. start.